MILWAUKEE 8, MINNESOTA 3 IN MILWAUKEE
Date: Thursday, September 3.
Batting stars: Cesar Tovar was 3-for-4 with a triple. Brant Alyea was 1-for-1 with a two-run homer, his twelfth.
Pitching stars: None.
Opposition stars: Roberto Pena was 3-for-4 with a home run (his third), a double, two runs, and three RBIs. Mike Hegan was 2-for-2 with a double, a stolen base (his eighth), two walks, and three runs. Dave May was 2-for-4. Phil Roof was 1-for-2 with a three-run homer (his tenth) and two walks. Marty Pattin pitched 7.1 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and a walk and striking out three.
The game: With one out in the second Hegan singled, Pena doubled, and Roof walked to load the bases, Ted Kubiak singled in one run, but Twins starter Bill Zepp was able to get out of the inning with no further damage. It stayed 1-0 through four.
In the fifth, however, the Brewers broke the game open. Tommy Harper walked and was bunted to second. May singled him in and went to second on the throw home. A ground out gave the Twins hope of getting out of the inning. Hegan was intentionally walked, but the strategy backfired as Pena had an RBI single and Roof hit a three-run homer, putting Milwaukee ahead 6-0.
The Twins tried to get back into it. In the sixth, Tovar tripled and scored on a ground out to get the Twins on the board. In the seventh Rich Reese singled and Alyea hit a two-out two-run homer to cut the margin to 6-3. In the bottom of the seventh, however, Hegan hit a two-out double and Pena followed with a two-run homer to make it 8-3. The Twins threatened in the eighth with a pair of one-out singles, but that was as much as they could do.
WP: Pattin (11-11). LP: Zepp (7-4). S: None.
Notes: Steve Brye started in left field in place of Alyea. Other than that, it was the standard 1970 lineup.
The Twins made a double switch in the fifth. I don't remember that happening before in a Random Rewind game, although it certainly may have. Stan Williams came in to pitch and Jim Holt came in to play center, with Tovar moving from center to left and Brye coming out of the game. The Twins used two pinch-hitters for pitchers, with Alyea batting in the seventh and Charlie Manuel in the ninth.
Tony Oliva was batting .311. He would finish at .325, leading the team. Tovar was batting .289 and would finish at .300. Rod Carew batted .366 but he missed much of the season, getting just 191 at-bats. The Twins batted .262, which was tied for first in the league with Boston.
Harmon Killebrew, of course, led the team in homers with 41. Oliva hit 23. Alyea had 16, George Mitterwald 15, Leo Cardenas 11, and Reese and Tovar 10 each. The Twins hit 153 home runs, which was fifth in the league. Boston led with 203.
Jim Perry was the ace of the staff, going 24-12, 3.04 in 40 starts with 13 complete games. Jim Kaat was 14-10, 3.56 with 34 starts and 11 relief appearances, including one in this game. Bert Blyleven, who came up in early June, went 10-9, 3.18. Luis Tiant pitched well when he was able to pitch, going 7-3, 3.40 in 16 starts. Ron Perranoski was the closer, going 7-8, 2.43 with 34 saves, but Stan Williams was probably the best reliever, going 10-1, 1.99 with 15 saves and a 1.03 WHIP. Tom Hall had a fine year, going 11-6, 2.55 in 52 games (11 starts). Zepp contributed as well, going 9-4, 3.22 in 43 games (20 starts). The Twins were second in ERA with 3.23, with Baltimore leading at 3.15. The Twins were fourth in WHIP at 1.25, with Baltimore also leading there at 1.21.
The Twins were in a stretch where they would win seven of eight and eleven of thirteen. Unfortunately, random.org gave us the rare loss.
Record: The Twins were 78-55, in first place in the American League West, three games ahead of California. They would finish 98-64, in first place, nine games ahead of Oakland.
The Brewers were 51-85, in fifth place in the American League West, 28.5 games behind Minnesota. They would finish 65-97, tied for fourth with Kansas City, 33 games behind Minnesota. You may remember that the Brewers were in the West until 1972, when they moved to the East and the Texas Rangers, moved from Washington, went to the West.
Random Record: The Twins are 55-52 in Random Rewind games.